3 ms·

Seems to be a lot of stereotyping here: "The sites they make for themselves tend to be minimalist and hipster-ish." - Seems to me like the author is cherry pick

Seems to be a lot of stereotyping here: "The sites they make for themselves tend to be minimalist and hipster-ish." - Seems to me like the author is cherry picking his examples in order to make his point. IMHO, design isn't about just making things "pretty" — a web designer should be concerned with how the interface works and persuading someone to do something (sign up, read more, etc), and making the interface pretty is only part of the equation. It's also making things readable, making things easy to use, your conversion elements easy to find. It isn't just popping yourself into Photoshop and learning how to make a gradient. Learning how to do this yourself takes a lot of time, and a lot of trial and error to find out works and what doesn't. Great web designers do this instinctually, it isn't something you're going to magically pick up after a few hours and your first design. I'm all for scrapping something together to launch something as fast as possible, but having someone around who specializes in making your interfaces work and convert is important at some point.

shazow 16y ago
I'm not convinced that great designers do things completely instinctively as they go along but fact of the matter is it does take a lot of time (especially if you're spending 90% of your time learning how to do everything), and I have no doubt that a great designer can do at least as good of a job as I in a fraction of the time (and probably a much better job at that). In the end, I don't see design being all that different from coding. Sure a PHP kiddie could write some crazy first person shooter by copying/pasting code for a couple of years, but Carmack will sneeze during dinner and put him to shame with his phlegm alone. So sure, people should go and do things themselves if they have the luxury of time and patience. Everyone else can go and hire someone better than them, if they have the luxury of money and practicality.
- sudont 16y ago
  Instinct is nothing more than using memory’s bias. Check out AIGA’s case study on how Second Story redesigned their archive viewer: http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/case-study-aiga-design-archives http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/case-study-aiga-design-archi... I talked to the lead UX designer, and he really emphasized their iterative process. AIGA’s site isn’t graphically styled heavily, but it is very well designed.
rimantas 16y ago
Good minimalistic design is really hard. You must get typography right among other things, and that's tricky.

shazow 16y ago

I'm not convinced that great designers do things completely instinctively as they go along but fact of the matter is it does take a lot of time (especially if you're spending 90% of your time learning how to do everything), and I have no doubt that a great designer can do at least as good of a job as I in a fraction of the time (and probably a much better job at that). In the end, I don't see design being all that different from coding. Sure a PHP kiddie could write some crazy first person shooter by copying/pasting code for a couple of years, but Carmack will sneeze during dinner and put him to shame with his phlegm alone. So sure, people should go and do things themselves if they have the luxury of time and patience. Everyone else can go and hire someone better than them, if they have the luxury of money and practicality.

sudont 16y ago
Instinct is nothing more than using memory’s bias. Check out AIGA’s case study on how Second Story redesigned their archive viewer: http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/case-study-aiga-design-archives http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/case-study-aiga-design-archi... I talked to the lead UX designer, and he really emphasized their iterative process. AIGA’s site isn’t graphically styled heavily, but it is very well designed.

rimantas 16y ago

Good minimalistic design is really hard. You must get typography right among other things, and that's tricky.